BBC shamed over faked phone-ins

12:01AM BST 19 Jul 2007

Continued from Page 1

already faced calls to resign over the royal fiasco and the new disclosures will increase pressure on him to go.

Mr Thompson told staff: "There is no excuse for deception. I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC. If you have a choice between deception and a programme going off air, let the programme go."

The fake winners were put on Comic Relief on BBC1 in March, TMi on CBBC in September 2006, and Sport Relief on BBC 1 in July 2006. On Children in Need in November 2005 on BBC1 Scotland a fictitious winner's details were broadcast because no telephone calls had got through from the public.

The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music and White Label on the World Service were repeat offenders. Neither their competitions nor the prizes existed and all callers featured were members of the production team or their friends.

Jeremy Hunt, the Tory culture spokesman, said: "This is a grim day for the BBC. Mark Thompson has uncovered a hornets' nest of deception at what was Britain's most trusted broadcaster. The most worrying thing is the impact it will have on charitable giving, as many of the fake winners were in programmes raising money for good causes.

"Tough words are fine but the proof of the pudding is what actually changes."

Michael Grade, the former chairman of the BBC who now heads ITV, said the fact that even Comic Relief had been implicated shows "how pernicious this erosion of ethics has been in the industry".

The problem was made worse by the casualisation of employment and expansion of short-term contracts. Workers had "mortgages to pay" and needed the next job or order.